Communication in Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice

Original Editor - Ewa Jaraczewska based on the course by Angela Patterson

Top Contributors - Ewa Jaraczewska and Jess Bell  

Introduction

IPEC Core Competencies

The Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) core competencies are an internationally adopted framework for interprofessional collaboration in healthcare. The IPEC framework organises collaboration into four domains, with 33 sub-competencies. The four domains are:

• Values and ethics
• Roles and responsibilities
• Communication
• Teams and teamwork

Together, these domains highlight the skills, knowledge, and attitudes needed for effective teamwork. This page focuses on the communication domain.

Communication Competency

"Interprofessional communication is widely described as central to patient outcomes and staff well-being."

Communication IPEC Competency

Communication is the "connective tissue" of interprofessional collaboration. It is through communication that teams coordinate care, make decisions, catch errors, and build the trust that sustains collaboration over time. Because interprofessional communication is inherently relational, it can be understood as a shared competence, which is collectively constructed and negotiated.

IPEC calls for communication that is responsive, responsible, respectful, and compassionate.

Communication Sub-competencies

The communication competency is organised into seven sub-competencies; each addresses a common breakdown point in interprofessional teamwork.

1. Communicate Your Roles and Responsibilities Clearly

Team members should not assume shared understanding. They need to clearly articulate what they do and why it matters, and avoid profession-specific jargon when communicating with other team members.

Each healthcare profession's scope of practice is distinct, and the gap between what team members actually do and what others assume they do is often significant. For example, an occupational therapist's functional assessment provides information that extends beyond physical capacity, and a social worker's evaluation of home circumstances can reveal factors that directly affect clinical decisions. This expertise is not always fully understood by colleagues in other fields.

2. Use Communication Tools, Techniques, and Technologies to Enhance Team Function, Well-being, and Health Outcomes

Healthcare teams rely on a range of communication tools and techniques, from electronic health records, secure messaging, and telehealth platforms to briefings, debriefings, huddles, and structured handoff protocols. These tools can improve coordination, but critical information can get lost when communication is spread across multiple platforms. Communication failures contribute to a significant proportion of healthcare errors, with an estimated 70% involving communication issues between staff rather than with patients. Tools such as the SBAR format (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) structure information to support clearer communication.

3. Communicate Clearly with Authenticity and Cultural Humility, Avoiding Discipline-Specific Terminology

Every profession has a specific vocabulary. Terms that are routine within one profession may be unfamiliar or unclear to colleagues in other fields. Effective interprofessional communication requires team members to discuss specialised concepts in accessible language, without oversimplifying or losing precision.

Authenticity matters. Saying "I don't know" or "I'm not sure how that fits with what I'm seeing" is a strength in a team, as this sort of authentic communication builds trust.

Cultural humility. Professional culture, personal background, and assumptions shape how one expresses and interprets information. Every clinician must remain curious about how others interpret information and stay open to communication styles different from their own.

4. Promote Common Understanding of Shared Goals

In a rehabilitation ward, all team members share a concern for the patient's overall recovery, but each brings a different professional lens (e.g., medical management, self-care independence, discharge planning, functional mobility). Without open discussion, the team may appear aligned while working towards different outcomes. Shared goals need to be named, agreed upon, and revisited as the patient's situation changes. "Help this patient return home safely by Friday" is a shared goal. However, "Manage pneumonia" is not, as it sits within one profession's scope. Promoting common understanding also means checking that everyone interprets goals the same way, not just assuming agreement.

5. Practice Active Listening That Encourages Ideas and Opinions of the Other Team Members

Active listening goes beyond simply hearing what is said. The listener must pay full attention, paraphrase what they have heard to confirm understanding, ask clarifying questions, and respond in a way that demonstrates the speaker was heard. Nonverbal cues are also important; eye contact, posture, and genuine attention all signal engagement.

In a team context, active listening also means noticing who has not spoken. In interprofessional rounds, quieter team members, whether due to role hierarchy, personality, or professional culture, may hold critical information they have not yet felt safe sharing. Actively inviting their input helps ensure that all perspectives are heard.

6. Use Constructive Feedback to Connect, Align, and Accomplish Team Goals

Feedback within teams is essential, but providing and receiving feedback across professional boundaries requires care and attention. When delivered well, feedback focuses on specific behaviours and their impact, not personal criticism. Constructive feedback offers a path forward. It encourages connection and alignment instead of simply identifying problems.

Receiving feedback is equally important. For feedback to flow in all directions, team members need to understand both how to give feedback effectively and receive it openly.

7. Examine Your Position, Power, Role, Unique Experience, Expertise, and Culture Towards Improving Communication and Managing Conflicts

Power dynamics exist in every interprofessional team. Professional hierarchy, gender, race, seniority, and organisational authority all shape who speaks, who is heard, and whose ideas are acted on, often in ways that are not perceived by those at the top of those hierarchies. In many teams, medical authority can dominate the clinical narrative, meaning other professional perspectives may not receive equal weight.

Recognising these dynamics is essential. Without deliberate attention, power imbalances can shape team decisions and shut down valuable perspectives. Senior clinicians might need to actively create space for others to contribute, or they might need to ensure less experienced members are supported to voice concerns.

When conflicts arise, the same power dynamics are at play. Resolving them effectively requires team members to recognise how position, hierarchy, and professional culture shape the disagreement.

Communication in Practice

When Communication Breaks Down

Consider an interprofessional team managing a patient admitted with pneumonia. The team includes a physician, nurse, pharmacist, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, and social worker. During morning rounds, the nurse raises a concern: the patient seems more confused than yesterday. The physician, focused on medical management, responds that confusion is common with infection and moves on. The nurse feels dismissed and says nothing more. Later that day, the patient falls attempting to get out of bed unassisted.

At the time the nurse raises the concern, several other team members also hold relevant information. The occupational therapist noticed that the patient found it difficult to complete morning self-care routines. The physiotherapist observed that the patient was unsteady during gait training in the morning. The pharmacist noted that the patient has been given a new sleep medication. However, no one speaks up after the interaction between the physician and nurse. While each team member holds a piece of the clinical puzzle, communication failures prevent them from coming together.

In a team debrief later that week, the team reflects on what went well and what went wrong. The physician acknowledges: "I was so focused on the infection that I didn't create space for the nurse's assessment to be heard. My position made it hard for the team to challenge that." The nurse shares that after being dismissed, pushing back didn't feel possible. The occupational therapist and physiotherapist admit they also held back information because the communication climate didn't feel open. This kind of honest reflection is how teams learn and improve.

When Communication Works

Now replay the same scenario with effective communication in place. The physician pauses when the nurse raises the concern, makes eye contact, and asks: "What specific changes have you noticed? When did it start?" The nurse describes the patient's orientation yesterday versus today. The physician acknowledges this and thanks the nurse for raising their concern.

The pharmacist connects the new sleep medication to delirium risk in older adults. The occupational therapist describes difficulty with task sequencing during breakfast. The physiotherapist shares concerns about gait safety. The social worker offers to contact the family for a baseline cognitive history. Within minutes, the team has built a clinical picture that none of them could see alone.

They establish a shared, time-bound goal: to identify the cause of confusion and implement a fall-prevention plan within two hours. Each profession contributes to the plan and documents in the shared record.

Reflection

Take a few minutes to think through the following:

1. Think of a time when you had important clinical information about a patient but did not share it with the wider team. What stopped you? What was the outcome?
2. When you communicate your assessments to colleagues from other professions, are there terms you assume others understand that might actually be unclear?
3. In the team environments you work or train in, whose voice tends to dominate clinical decisions, and who tends to stay quiet? What would it take to change that?

Summary

Clear communication creates the conditions for clinical information to flow between healthcare professionals with different training and priorities. When teams work together and communicate effectively, patient care and outcomes improve. When communication breaks down, critical information can be missed and patient safety compromised.

Resources

• Resources to Facilitate Interprofessional Communication
• Interprofessional Practice Guide: 1. Team Communication
• IPE Core Competency Domain 3: Interprofessional Communication

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